time to introduce myself! My manager once described me as the most materialistic German he has ever met. While a lot of my obsession with gear has in some form to do with computers, as of late it is all focused on audio. Inspired by my father, I started out with a “proper” two channel set up pretty early, meaning separate components and floor standing speakers. My move to San Francisco in 2015 has sadly put a stop to that – space is tight and so my wife vetoed them big boxes. Living here is expensive as well, so we compromised by getting the cheapest, tiniest 5.1 setup that wouldn’t make me want to cry. Or her.

In the mean time, working in an open office meant I needed headphones with good isolation, so I got the much lauded ATH-M50x. I thought I had something really good there, but two years later, they started falling apart, leading to my first visit at Audio Vision SF. Eventually I decided on the Focal Listen and was intrigued by their imaging and resolution. This sparked my curiosity about how much better it could possibly be. I attended the California Audio Show and the San Francisco Head-Fi meetup and read what I could on Head-Fi, SBAF and other sites about magical things like sound stage, balanced amplifiers, tubes, silver cables and power conditioners… and a lot of Schiit.

Less than half a year later I find myself having spent thousands of dollars on pretty nice equipment that is adding so much happiness to my life. But I’m not kidding myself, the search for the ultimate sound reproduction system is going to continue for a long time.

As it turns out, I also quite like many of the other people that caught the same bug, and so I joined you guys. I look forward to meeting you all, talking gear and music, gaining experience and having a great time!